Bill Duff comments on Human Weapon BS.

Hey guys, love the show. Love how you show the real fighting side of martial arts and end every episode with a real fight.

I was wondering though, how do you deal with some of the less practical stuff you get shown? Both of you come from martial art backgrounds that are very practical and straightforward; wrestling, MMA, etc. Yet, some of the stuff you get shown by the guest instructors (invariably it's the guys from the "history" section of the show) seems decidedly impractical and in some cases downright BS. Are you ever tempted to say something about it?

Thanks,
Matt W.

PS. There is a thread for just about every episode of the show in bullshido.net, if you're interested.

[edited out links]

Originally Posted by Big Bill Duff

Honestly I never call anyone out on a BS move. A lot of the moves are culturally ingrained into forms, dance or kata. This makes them tradition and people hold them sacred. I believe a lot of it can be used in principal though, thinking outside of the box is a valuable tool in any fight. Some of these non practical moves force you to think of ways an enemy could attack you unconventionally. So I believe they play an important part in teaching both young and old martial artist a lesson.

That's quite a diplomatic answer. Translated it goes something like this "Human Weapon is a hit with good ratings. I'm not going to jeopardize it by saying what I really think, I'd never get invited to half of these places if I did. " I can't blame the guy, he should milk that show until it turns into yogurt.

I hate how people constantly bitch about him on the HW forums. I could possibly understand if real martial artists would complain they want someone with more technique and knowledge about martial arts (which is what a lot of bullies want), but the HW posters are angry because Bill tends to tie with/beat the "master" of their favorite martial art.

Bill's cool, man. I like him. Don't know how much of his "character" is editing or acting on the show, but his enthusiasm is fun and makes the show fun to watch.

As for his response, yeah it's very diplomatic, as expected. It's also fairly mature. He seems to be saying, "yeah some of it's BS, but I don't want to insult these guys and besides, you never know what might give you a new tool to use." Of course, the mission of this site is to expose BS, so I'm sure we'd all rather see them speak up about some of it, but how long would the show last then? Anything that is ridiculous gets exposed on it's own by mere virtue of the show ultimately (and despite the middle "history" segment) being grounded on a real fight and real fighting.

He seems like a good guy. People want BS- look at the Cris Angel/Uri Geller promo- they're more famous then James Randi, who exposes bullshit artists. Plus, some of these exposers have a sort of asshole, smartass vibe that people just don't like- Penn & Teller, for instance. I mentioned some of there stuff to my brother in law, who's an Atheist and a PHD, and you'd think they would be in agreement on a lot of things (it was in regards to their expose on mother Thresa), but as soon as I mentioned those two, it was like "Penn & Teller, yoou know those guys have an agenda.." On the other hand, the Duff guy seems like the kind of guy that would have your back, or you could have a beer with. Duff. Beer. Get it? Sorry.